Longzang

Chapter 1074 The Rain Disperses and the Clouds Part
The appearance of the junior national advisor of Northern Liao took everyone by surprise, including Wei Yuan.

After the young national advisor left, Wei Yuan immediately put away the immortal chicken. Even though the immortal chicken flapped its wings and kept clamoring to teach that dwarf from beyond the heavens a lesson, Wei Yuan still managed to catch it.

As a celestial creature, the celestial rooster possessed great wisdom. Despite struggling fiercely and clucking out threats, it was quickly subdued by Wei Yuan.

After capturing the immortal rooster, the True Lord of the Farming Land disappeared automatically. Although he had attained sainthood through merit and was now a True Lord, his combat power was probably still inferior to that of many immortals, so he naturally could not stay on the battlefield for long.

At this moment, the chaotic battle ended, and seeing that the defensive line that was about to be built in the rear had been completely flattened, the mountain people who had fought bloody battles on the front line suddenly lost their breath. Under the heavy bombardment, they could no longer hold on and began to flee.

The Qingming troops were greatly encouraged and immediately charged in through the breach, their artillery fire extending deeper into the enemy territory. Wang Hu led the surviving Daoist soldiers out of the fortress, while Wei Yuan left no reserve troops behind, relentlessly pursuing the main force of the mountain people.

The mountain people's army collapsed like a house of cards, and several Imperial Guards, seeing that Wei Yuan had withdrawn the Evil Yang True Meaning, began to stir with restlessness.

Just then, a cyan immortal sword suddenly flew in from the sky, carrying unparalleled sword intent, and slashed at all the mountain people, Yu Jing, in mid-air!
In an instant, every mountain dweller felt a sense of impending doom and instinctively turned to leave. Above the celestial realm, Di Ran, who had been sitting and watching the battle, saw the sword arrive from the sky and rose slightly before slowly sitting back down.

This sword strike is like a dragon, like an abyss, like a mountain, like the sea, with ever-changing grandeur.

The six mountain dwellers scattered and fled. The azure immortal sword flew to the battlefield, then selected one of the giant mountain dwellers and gave chase. The giant mountain dweller ran wildly, completely unaware that the immortal sword was already behind him.

High above the celestial realm, a mountain hermit snorted and stretched out a finger to block the azure immortal sword, as if a hundred-foot mountain peak had descended from the sky.

The cyan immortal sword struck the fingertip, emitting a metallic hum, then instantly turned back and disappeared.

The mountain immortal in the celestial realm let out another groan, this time with more pain in his voice, for he had a cut on one of his index fingers, which was bleeding profusely.

Di Ran gazed in the direction the immortal sword had returned and slowly nodded, saying, "It seems that we can indeed see the answer in this generation."

He suddenly felt a surge of emotion, so he took out a jade bottle, poured a cup of celestial wine, smelled the aroma of the wine, and then slowly drank it.

Thousands of miles away, Zhang Sheng stood in the air with his hands behind his back. A point of blue light flashed in the distance, and the blue immortal sword flew back and landed in her hand.

A chip appeared on the blade of the immortal sword, stained with blood.

Zhang Sheng ran her finger across the undamaged side of the sword. Normally, she would have shaken off the blood and put it back to rest. But after checking that no one was around, she suddenly took out a jade bottle, carefully scraped off the immortal blood that had stained the sword's blade, and quickly put it into the bottle and sealed it.

With a "pfft," Di Ran spat out a mouthful of wine.

The immortal, whose physical body was ten thousand feet tall, let out a heavy snort, clearly quite annoyed.

Di Ran watched as Zhang Sheng swiftly put away the jade bottle and then calmly stored the immortal sword in his sea of ​​consciousness to nurture it. At this moment, her movements became graceful and elegant, looking incredibly comfortable. If Di Ran hadn't witnessed the whole thing, she would never have guessed that Zhang Sheng was someone who wouldn't even waste a few drops of immortal blood.

Meanwhile, the giant Mikage was still running wildly, completely unaware that he had just narrowly escaped death.

The mountain people's army collapsed like a house of cards, but at this moment, several tribal leaders stepped forward, raised their arms and shouted, went against the tide, and led their tribal warriors to block the Qingming army.

But with the cannons firing first and the chariots leading the way, they crushed tribe after tribe in an instant and continued their advance. Flesh and blood were simply no match for the torrent of artillery and steel.

At this moment, the mountain dwellers Yu Jing returned. No longer concerned with saving face, they used their magic to raise towering mountains and tear open ravines in front of the Qingming army. The drastic changes in terrain instantly exhausted the magic power of several Yu Jing members, leaving them severely injured.

But this move did work, finally stopping the Qingming army, and the mountain people retreated to the rear by crossing mountains and valleys.

However, in the blink of an eye, the mountain leaders who had just breathed a sigh of relief became tense again.

A large number of Qingming engineers entered the site and used explosives to blast the newly formed mountain peaks apart. These newly formed peaks were actually quite fragile and were quickly broken off under repeated explosions of hundreds of tons of explosives.

Meanwhile, several trucks drove to the edge of the fissure and built floating bridges on the spot using steel plates. Numerous formwork supports were laid on both sides of the fissure, and several floating bridges were quickly erected.

With the efforts of thousands of template roadbeds, Qingming's engineering capabilities left the mountain people speechless.

The mountain tribesman's commander had originally planned to re-establish a defensive line a hundred miles away, but seeing that Qingming was about to break through the terrain, he decided to retreat three thousand miles, almost back to the mountain tribesman's territory. He then planned to mobilize troops on the edge of the mountain tribesman's territory to build a new defensive line. The mountain tribesman retreated, and Wei Yuan led his army in pursuit, chasing them relentlessly for a full day and night, covering a distance of fifteen hundred miles, killing hundreds of thousands more mountain tribesman before finally stopping.

The army then turned back and surged towards the eastern front.

Wei Yuan also sent messengers to inform Feng Chutang and Cui Yu on the eastern front of the great victory on the northern front, instructing them to hold out for two more days. Two days later, the main army would return to fight a decisive battle against Ji's army.

By this time, the eastern front had held out for a full ten days, and of the more than 200,000 defenders, including the reserve forces, only 90,000 remained, while 400,000 of the 2 million-strong army of the Ji Kingdom had been killed in battle. The Daoist soldiers of Cangwu had lost another 300,000, leaving them with very few survivors.

In Ji Jun's camp, Sun Chaoen also received news of the mountain people's great defeat and the Qingming army's retreat.

Sun Chaoen read the battle report several times, closed his eyes and pondered for the time it takes to burn an incense stick, then suddenly opened his eyes and said, "Issue the order to cease the attack, and for the entire army to return to camp and retreat three hundred li!"

Xiao Jingyuan, who had been resting with his eyes closed, opened them, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard Supervisor's face darkened. He said, "Isn't it a bit inappropriate to retreat now?"

Sun Chaoen said, "If we don't retreat now, we won't be able to retreat at all. While we still have strength, we should take advantage of the terrain to form a defensive formation and hold our ground. There is still room for negotiation."

Xiao Jingyuan's adopted son said angrily, "You're the one who mobilized the entire force, and you're also the one who suddenly retreated. Do you even know how to fight a war?"

Sun Chaoen glanced at him and said with a smile, "I've never led troops before, how would I know anything about fighting? But His Majesty insists that I lead the troops, so what can I do? It's inevitable that the young general is angry. But when it comes to solutions, there are only two words: endure it!"

All the generals in the camp had eyes blazing with fury, but Sun Chaoen remained unmoved. He placed the imperial edict directly on the table and then beheaded two more generals with eyes blazing with fury.

Both generals were Xiao Jingyuan's confidants. They didn't actually say anything, but Sun Chaoen's reason for beheading them was that they looked directly at the imperial edict, which was considered a great disrespect.

When the embroidered-robed officer saw that the two generals were to be executed, he sat calmly to the side without making a sound.

Sun Chaoen suppressed all dissent and forced a retreat. The Ji Kingdom's army retreated three hundred miles away in one go, where they re-established their camp at a pass.

When the army of Ji attacked, they moved as slowly as a forest, as immovable as a mountain; when they retreated, they were as swift as the wind and as fierce as fire. They covered three hundred li in just half a day, and the army remained orderly and well-organized. The generals of Ji were not all incompetent; they all knew that a well-organized structure and orderly formations increased their chances of survival.

Sun Chaoen's timing of the retreat impressed Cangwu, who admitted that even he himself might not have been so decisive in commanding troops. Upon hearing of Wei Yuan's army's return, he immediately stopped fighting.

Cangwu, however, couldn't feel happy at all as he held the light-weight Dao Soldier Gourd in his hand. Before this battle, he never imagined that after hundreds of years of refining and accumulating over two million Dao Soldiers in a single gourd, eighty percent of them would be lost!

This gourd is truly a treasure of humanity. If it were in the hands of an immortal skilled in warfare, it could be used to establish a kingdom. However, now, its value has been reduced to less than one-tenth. This is because Daoist soldiers only pose a threat when they are numerous enough, and a mere three or four hundred thousand Daoist soldiers are no longer sufficient to turn the tide in a major battle.

……

In the capital of Ji Kingdom, King Ji stood before the map, motionless for a long time.

Cangwu appeared beside him, but surprisingly, he didn't see Xu Shang or Cai Miao either.

Cangwu coughed lightly and said, "Sun Chaoen handled it well. He has already retreated the army three hundred miles, with only less than 500,000 casualties."

Prince Ji did not turn around, but simply asked, "You lost?"

"The main reason is that the mountain people suffered a defeat in the decisive battle, while Wei Yuan's main force is still intact and has already marched eastward."

Prince Ji said calmly, "Is there any more talk than this?"

Cangwu was unusually patient this time, saying, "Talks are the best policy, but if we really can't reach an agreement, fighting is not out of the question."

Prince Ji finally turned around and said, "It seems that I can sit in this position for a few more years."

(End of this chapter)